George Lansbury: at the Heart of Old Labour.(Book Review)

John Shepherd

Oxford University Press 400pp

35 [pounds sterling] ISBN 0 19 820164 8

HISTORY TODAY BOOKSHOP PRICE 30 [pounds sterling]

MOST HISTORIANS of the British labour movement feel ambivalent about George Lanshury. Did not the great inspirational figure of opposition end his career as a catastrophic leader of the Labour Party? Beatrice Webb, while admitting that he was a `Great Heart', judged that he was also `an emotional non-thinker'. Another contemporary wrote caustically that his `bleeding heart ran away with his bloody head'. Yet John Shepherd's finely ...

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